სამუზეუმო განათლების თანამედროვე გამოწვევები

Abstract

Training museum specialists is an important challenge for the modern educational system. There are various practices of training museum specialists abroad. Basically, museum specialists are trained in academic educational programs at higher educational institutions with the involvement of museums.

For example, foreign universities offer both undergraduate and graduate educational programs and short-term training courses.

As for the post-Soviet countries, in most cases (Estonia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan), two-level or one-level (Belarus) educational programs of museum education have been implemented, as well as third-level (doctoral) programs, and in some countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, etc.) museum education is represented by short-term certificate courses.

The Georgian education system has become part of the European Educational Space since 2005. The country has a National Qualifications Framework, which defines 8 levels of education. Accordingly, a classification of fields of study has been established, which, based on the documents of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (“International Standard Classification of Education” (ISCED-F-2013) and “Fields of Education and Training 2013 – Detailed Description of Fields” (ISCED-FoET-2013), classifies the fields of study existing in Georgia and determines the qualifications awarded in each field of study. According to the classifier, fields of study are classified according to the principle of content grouping and include a broad field, a narrow field, and a detailed field.

The specialty "Museology" of interest to us is included in the detailed field of social sciences, which means that higher educational programs in this direction can be prepared at both the first and second levels. However, since higher education in Georgia has become part of the business, higher education institutions do not implement financially “unprofitable” educational programs. The only exception is the Tbilisi Academy of Arts, where the only master's degree program in "Museum Studies" operates in Georgia. As for Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, the “Cultural Heritage and Modernity” master's program has a direction (module) “Museology”.

Unfortunately, "museum studies" is not included among the priority educational areas recognized by the Georgian government. These and other circumstances represent a significant obstacle to the training of qualified specialists in the museum field. As for short-term internships and training certificate courses, although they contribute to the retraining of museum specialists, they do not provide qualified, academic education.

A significant challenge for museum education is the provision of textbooks and scientific research in the field.